at the TPC...

at the TPC...
Originally uploaded by iushosh.

we've returned safely from scottsdale, arizona yesteray. now that i've catched up on sleep and relaxing, i've got to go back to work in the morning.

i have to say a big thank you to my parents for having us stay at their new house in scottsdale and feeding us and letting us use the convertible the whole week. it was a lot of fun! we've pretty much decided that after we are done with this job, we're going to move to the phoenix area. 300 days of pure sunshine, who doesn't love nature's prozac!

another big thanks going out to greg's friend dan. he showed us around the chandler/gilbert area and gave us some insight into living in phoenix, since he's been living there for 10 years. also, thanks to dan's folks for dinner, it was yummy and i think i've stopped smelling like garlic!

i'm off to figure out some menu ideas for tomorrow! good night to all...

off to arizona...

greg and i are off to scottsdale to visit my parents and to get a few days of r&r while the bosses are out of town...

i don't know if i'll blog from there, we will just have to see what happens!

hamantashen for purim

this week, we celebrated purim... quite possibly the best jewish holiday ever! this holiday commemorates the deliverance of the Persian Jews from destruction in the reign of the Persian king Ahasuerus. at temple we read the story of esther (not madonna) and haman (boo!!!!), and we dress up in costume and have a big party, and usually a carnival with prizes for the kids. check out http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday9.htm for more specific info on the holiday...

one of the most important parts of this minor holiday is the 3 cornered cookie called hamantaschen. it is shaped like a triangle to represent haman's (boo!) 3 cornered hat. the bosses' grandkids have been asking for hamantaschen all week, so on wednesday, i baked some... these cookies come with a variety of fillings ranging from prune to apricot to cherry, but as we all know, all these kids wanted was chocolate chip, and who am i to argue (chocolate in my fav too!) so, i busted out my mom's temple sisterhood cookbook and found her recipe for hamantaschen...

4 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup oil
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1.5 tsp. baking powder

Add warm water to flour and rest of ingredients to make a soft dough ball. divide into 6 balls. roll out, one at a time. use large mouth glass to cut dough into circles. fill with filling; pinch corners together to fashion triangle, and place on greased cookie sheet.

bake at 350F until brown, about 20 minute.

as you can see, this is a pretty basic recipe, but i did have to call my mom and yell at her about this one. what order do i put the ingredients together? do i cream the oil and sugar together first? or do i just throw everything in a bowl and hope it comes out okay?

her response... "i just threw it all in a bowl and mixed it up"

thanks mom!

i did cream the sugar and oil together first (never any harm doing that), and i sifted the flour, salt and baking powder together just to make sure everything was well mixed. i added chocolate chips, white and dark swirled chips, and chocolate and caramel swirled chips as filling, as well as a few made with blueberry pie filling. all of them came out great! in fact, i every found prune butter (yuck!) and filled a few for my boss, and he loved them too!

sorry i forgot to take photos, i guess you will all have to wait a year until purim comes around again to see what they look like!

knitting - my other hobby...

baby blanket for zoe
Originally uploaded by iushosh.

since i don't do a lot of baking in florida, i decided to finally finish the baby blanket i started. it took 4 months, and zoe is now almost 6 months old, but at least she will have a pretty pink blankie from her aunt stacy!

this blanket was an easy pattern... maybe that was the problem, it was easy. it was only in knit stitch and it increased 1 stitch every row, starting at 5 stitches and ending somewhere about 200 stitches in the center row. by the middle i just wanted to kill the blanket, but thanks to my knitting circle (yes, i belong to a knitting circle), i pushed through and finally finished it!

now to start my next project, an afgan for my house. after that, i have 4 more baby projects to do, everyone i know seems to have gotten knocked up lately... must be something in the water that i'm not drinking...

brownies - project #1, part 2

i decided yesterday that i was going to attempted the brownie recipe from william-sonoma again. we had everyone over for dinner last night at work, and what would 9 children love for dessert other than chocolate chip cookies... BROWNIES! but this time, i was going to do things a little differently than the 1st time...

1. make sure to use a glass pan, just like the directions say...
2. check the brownies a few minutes before the directions say, then add more time as needed...

tada! the brownies came out perfect and delicious! i'm so very proud of myself... moist, chewy, chocolaty brownies! i can bake!

today is another day off (yes, i do seem to have a lot of those)... i'm going to try to finish the baby blanket i've been working on for a while now. it seems that i have at least 3 or 4 more to work on for friends and family before the end of the summer.... lots of knitting to do!